Heavyn: Lost Rockers from Dearborn, Michigan: A Sidebar to the History of Frijid Pink, Part 1
Their ‘lost from the grave’ 45-rpm ‘Two Man Blues’ b/w ‘Children of the Woods,’ 1971
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Left to right: Bob Gilbert — lead guitar, Greg Joseph — bass guitar, Dave Ellefson — keyboards, Rick Moll — drums, Producer — Mike Finnin (third from left, center), Engineer — Jerry Cell (on the single).
There’s no information or images on Heavyn’s fellow Dearborn-based bands noted in the article as competing: Shelter, Stockton, Sanch Panza, Internal Combustion, Menagerie, and Iliad.
According to The Detroit News on September 1, 1971, the band appeared at the Dearborn Youth Center’s “Battle of the Bands” in July. In the article, Heavyn’s manager, Mike Finnin, states the band was together for three months at that point — which places their formation around May 1971.
In addition to winning the Dearborn contest, the band opened shows for the earliest stage of Frijid Pink (formerly known as the Detroit Vibrations). Two of the band’s other known shows were opening a January 30, 1972, appearance by Capitol Records’ SRC, and a February 13, 1972, appearance by Tee Garden and Van Winkle, both at the Lincoln Park Theatre in Lincoln Park, Michigan. During the month of April 1972, ads placed in Ohio’s Mansfield News Journal (available at Newspapers.com), indicate Heavyn booked dates at W.J’s Club in Mansfield.
The single mentioned by Mike Finnin in The Detroit News, “Two Man Blues” b/w “Children of the Wood” was released on his vanity-press, Long Knight Records — and the band never recorded for RCA Records, as sometimes rumored. The single was recorded at PRSD/Pioneer Recording Studios in Detroit owned and operated by Gary Rubin and Alan Sussman. Through the studio, the duo ran their own imprints: Pioneer, Gold, and Tru-Soul. Pioneer recorded several sides with Ann Arbor-based jazz trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, the Detroit Vibrations — on their way to coming Frijid Pink — as well as the Rationals (released on their manager Jeep Holland’s own A-Square).
While Heavyn’s lone single carries Pioneer’s catalog number of PRSD-2188 and Long Knight’s LK-101, the runout codes “A4KS-3959” and “A4KS-3960” indicate it’s an RCA Records custom pressing (A = 1971, 4= band supplied tapes to RCA, who then cut the lacquers, K= 45 rpm, S= Stereo), thus the confusion that the band recorded for the label.
Image Left: Heaven with SRC at the Lincoln Park Theatre, January 1972.
Image Right: Heavyn opening for Frigid Pink at the Lincoln Park Theatre, September 29, 1971
Image Left: W.J’s Club, Walker Lake Road, Mansfield, Ohio.
Image Right: Heavyn and Fantasy Hill at the Lincoln Park Theatre, March 28, 1974.
It is rumored Heavyn broke up sometime in 1972, as the band’s Bob Gilbert, Greg Joseph, and Dave Ellefson were (temporarily) absorbed into the ranks of Frijid Pink. This roster rehearsed, as well as possibly toured, between the release of the Rick Stevers-led band’s second album, Defrosted (1970) — when lead guitarist Gary Ray Thompson and lead singer Tom Beaudry (aka Kelly Green) left the band — and their third album, Earth Omen (1972).
However, based on the March 1974 flyer, the band most likely absorbed into Frijid Pink in late 1974, after their fourth and final album released in March 1974, All Pink Inside, on Fantasy Records. (On Frijid Pink’s Wikipedia, page, only Bob “Bobby G” Gilbert is noted as a one-time member; it doesn’t state the time frame of his membership.)
Credits: Our thanks to Mike Delbusso of the Splatt Gallery Rock Art Gallery of Walled Lake, Michigan, for the images. 45 rpm and Pioneer Recording Studio advertisement images courtesy of Discogs.
